and the banger incident cleared?????

[stinger]

not much difference to me......both actionable imhfo.......and banger didn't even get to decline a freekick....

"Milburn falls foul of AFL over Tiger spear-tackle

Michael Gleeson | August 5, 2008

GEELONG enforcer Darren Milburn has become the first player to feel the pain of an AFL threat to crack down on tackles in which a helpless player is pinned and slammed into the ground.

Milburn has been banned for four matches with the chance to reduce that to two if he pleads guilty after being cited for rough conduct yesterday by the match review panel.

The incident occurred in the third quarter of the match against Richmond on Saturday night when Milburn had Shane Edwards pinned by the arms and, after the ball had spilled free, swung him to the ground.

Edwards' head slammed into the ground as he had no way of protecting himself.

The AFL moved to crack down on this form of straitjacket tackle along with spear tackles in recent years, fearing that players were trying to inflict serious harm under the guise of a legitimate tackle.

Sports medicine expert Peter Bruckner said before the panel made its finding on Milburn that the AFL had to act on this tactic before players were seriously injured.

"They changed the ruck rules because of the number of people doing posterior cruciates, are we saying the knee is more important than the head? Someone is going to be seriously injured from this, the player is completely vulnerable and the only reason to slam them into the ground is to hurt them," Bruckner said.

"I know whenever you raise these concerns people say the game is getting soft and certainly we don't want that, but this is not about the game getting soft, this is about a deliberate attempt to hurt someone."

Rough conduct is defined as conduct which in the circumstances is unreasonable, but the accompanying DVD of the rules offers little help to Milburn as an example shown of an illegal tackle looks very similar to Milburn's.

The incident was assessed as reckless, high impact and high contact meaning seven activation points and a level four offence of 425 demerit points — a four-match ban.

His good behaviour over five years cuts the penalty by 25% and an early plea would reduce it a further 25% to 239.06 points and a two-match ban.

Jacob Surjan escaped punishment for his tackle of Robert Harvey, which left the St Kilda veteran dazed and jelly-legged.

Surjan also hammered Harvey's head into the Telstra Dome turf in a tackle, but the difference in the incidents was that Harvey had the ball at the time and got a kick away in the tackle moments before being slammed into the ground.

Milburn's tackle was similar to when St Kilda's Aaron Hamill badly injured the shoulder of Richmond's Jay Schulz in 2006.

[Solar]

personally stinger I thought it was a fair tackle, not sure what you can call them for? Problem is players are getting too goo at pinning arms and tackling

[chook23]

Think they got it right.

Different

Milburn ball long gone and buried him

Harvey had the ball for the majority of the tackle.....dribbling a kick
over halfway through the tackle.

[jonesy]

There was nothing in it. The swinging action was well underway before he disposed of the ball

Was just unfortunate it was Harves

[perfectionist]

Agree

[st_Trav_ofWA]

are they playing football or netball ?? the tackle on harves was hard and fair (i reckon harves would also agree) its a shame harves got hurt by it but heck thats the game

[bergsone]

Bike helmets anyone?

[saint66au]

Common denominator here?? they were all on that lovely soft spongy Telstra Dome surface

[The Saintsational Man]

If you were to ask Robert Harvey if it was a fair tackle, my belief would be, that he would say it was.

I believe it was myself.

If you start picking apart those parts of the game, it's all gonna turn into a farce.

The umpires are already struggling with the rules as they are.

[spert]

Struggling with the rules is right..they can't even work out a simple holding the ball rule.

[Hurricane]

Surjans tackle imho was hard but fair I was pissed off at the time (and for a few days after) but after viewing it on replay it looked within the rules to me.

The reason that Milburn went was the ball came free and it was a totally seperate action to slam Edwards into the turf.

4 weeks was probebly a tad harsh but the head needs to be protected

BANG BANG

[BAM! (shhhh)]

The harvey tackle was a tough tackle. That Harvey came back tells us what we already knew about the strength of his will.

The Milburn/Edwards tackle was a perfect example of why the in the back rule exists. Forget where the ball is, Edwards was slammed facefirst into the turf with his arms pinned. Shouldn't need a "slam tackle" rule to put that one in front of the tribunal.

[RedWhiteBlack]

Geelong has decided to fight the charge tonight!

[BakesFan]

What's the point of slinging a player if you have his arms pinned??

What's the point of slamming his head into the deck??

The answer to both those questions is simple: to hurt him and take him out of the game.

Surjans achieved his goal...... It's up to the powers that be to decide if 'slinging' in a tackle is a part of the game.

[Mr Magic]

What's the point of slinging a player if you have his arms pinned??

What's the point of slamming his head into the deck??

The answer to both those questions is simple: to hurt him and take him out of the game.

Surjans achieved his goal...... It's up to the powers that be to decide if 'slinging' in a tackle is a part of the game.

I agree BakesFan.
It's now up to the AFL to decide whether this tactic of pinning your opponents arms and then slamming him into the ground is acceptable or not.

The free kick is for 'holding the ball' or 'not correctly disposing of the ball'. Nowhere in the rule book does it day you get an extra free kick for potentially injuring your opponent.

[bigred]

Fair tackle.

[Prodgers]

Geez could you imagine if Baker laid one of those tackles?

[stinger]

What's the point of slinging a player if you have his arms pinned??

What's the point of slamming his head into the deck??

The answer to both those questions is simple: to hurt him and take him out of the game.

Surjans achieved his goal...... It's up to the powers that be to decide if 'slinging' in a tackle is a part of the game.

i agree with you....so does healy by the sound of him on "on the couch".....actionable in my opinion.........

[plugger66]

Good tackle by Surjan. Bad tackle by Milburn. Good results on both. Players are taught to tackle like that and everone of our players would and should do it under similar circumstances.

[danners]

do you think we would be as accepting that it was a good tackle by surjan if say harvey sustained injuries that ended his career?

[stinger]

Good tackle by Surjan. Bad tackle by Milburn. Good results on both. Players are taught to tackle like that and everone of our players would and should do it under similar circumstances.

no ...banging a players head into the turf after he has disposed of the ball,,,and whilst his arms are pinned is against the laws of the game....despite what the match review committee states......

[HarveysDeciple]

Good tackle by Surjan. Bad tackle by Milburn. Good results on both. Players are taught to tackle like that and everone of our players would and should do it under similar circumstances.

agreed.

The problem with Milburn's was that he saw the ball come free, the play had gone on for a bit and then Milburn noticing his opponent's arms were pinned slammed him into the ground. Unnecessary and hence falls under the banner of unduly rough play because the contest had passed.

He's had a tendency to cross the line atouch in the past Milburn, and now he puts a dent in my dreamteam finals campaign lol.

[stinger]

i disagree with both of you....but then...that's life.......

[plugger66]

Good tackle by Surjan. Bad tackle by Milburn. Good results on both. Players are taught to tackle like that and everone of our players would and should do it under similar circumstances.

no ...banging a players head into the turf after he has disposed of the ball,,,and whilst his arms are pinned is against the laws of the game....despite what the match review committee states......

Not sure if you have ever played footy but that was a perfect takle that all coaches would love to see. the ball fell out and Surjan would not have known and even if he did he would have had no chance of letting go. It was probably half a second after it fell out that he hit the ground. Perfect tackle and the Saints would be trained to tackle like that.

[stinger]

Good tackle by Surjan. Bad tackle by Milburn. Good results on both. Players are taught to tackle like that and everone of our players would and should do it under similar circumstances.

no ...banging a players head into the turf after he has disposed of the ball,,,and whilst his arms are pinned is against the laws of the game....despite what the match review committee states......

Not sure if you have ever played footy but that was a perfect takle that all coaches would love to see. the ball fell out and Surjan would not have known and even if he did he would have had no chance of letting go. It was probably half a second after it fell out that he hit the ground. Perfect tackle and the Saints would be trained to tackle like that.

of course i have played footy....also spent many years as a tribunal member of an afl affiliated tribunal......got sent the video at the start of this season too....it was an illegal tackle for mine......